Portage Pole Person Possibly Pecked Passing Poop

I have not been out walking as much the last couple of months. I think I overdid the stretching on a day when my body was cooperating, and I have strained the ligaments around my knees again. But my physiotherapist gave me the green light to start walking again, so I have been out with my sticks at least once a week lately. In all honesty, the green light was given about a month ago, and I have just been lazy.

But I was out this morning, walking with my poles, greeting all of the friendly PlaPers on the path, all of us dodging the great green gobs of greasy grimy goose droppings on the path. A sad reminder of how fast this summer is racing by was that the goslings are almost as big as the parents now (another reason to envy mother geese (no offense to my children; you can stay in our basement for as long as you want – as long as you clean the cat litter and keep doing your own laundry, and maybe stop complaining so much about my cooking).

I walked through a herd of geese loitering on the public green space on either side of the Crescent path by 16th Street. (I call it a herd when 50 or more are lounging in the grass, a flock would be when they are flying or swimming or otherwise engaging in bird like behaviour.) These birds have become so used to humans that they would eat out of your hand – but don’t feed them! Geese are so well adapted to life in urban areas among human populations that some have stopped migrating and they die in Canadian winters. Even many humans don’t survive Canadian winters, and have adopted bird-like behaviours like flying south for the winter.

Several of the geese hissed at me, as if I were the one encroaching on their public green space. At least I didn’t get goosed. This may have required some restraint on their part, as I would be a large, slow-moving target.

Herd may be a good word to use as some of these geese crap like a horse. Look at the size of that!